No ruling in case blocking T&G sale

WORCESTER — The sale of the Telegram & Gazette and The Boston Globe was delayed for another day awaiting a decision by a Superior Court judge considering a request to lift the temporary restraining order she put into effect Friday.

The order issued by Judge Shannon Frison was based on a long-running dispute between the Telegram & Gazette and its former newspaper carriers who are worried that the sale of the papers by the New York Times Co. to Boston Red Sox owner John W. Henry could prevent them from being able to collect a settlement.

In her temporary restraining order Judge Frison put the "maximum end" of a settlement in the case at $60 million. The price Mr. Henry agreed to pay for the New England Media Group, of which the Telegram & Gazette is a part, is $70 million.

The former carriers are seeking millions in back pay, benefits and damages because they allege they were misclassified as independent contractors instead of employees.

The judge had been expected to issue a decision Wednesday. However she left her courtroom at 4:35 p.m. According to a court clerk, no ruling would be made available before Thursday.

The judge, meanwhile, has ordered the Times Co., the Globe and the T&G to comply with subpoenas she issued last week and provide documentation to establish the market value of the T&G in order to set aside enough money to pay a potential judgment or settlement with the carriers.

On Monday, the lawyer representing the Times Co., the T&G and the Globe, proposed to permit the sale of the newspapers and their websites to go forward if the Times Co. contributes to the T&G, after the sale, the fair market value of the newspaper's net assets.

The Times Co. argued in court documents that while it could separately value the T&G, it could not disentangle the daily operations of the T&G and the Globe, which make up the New England Media Group.

"Although the court's injunction is limited to the sale of the T&G's assets, it effectively precludes the sale of any of the New England Media Group assets, or at least substantially delays that sale while the parties to the transaction figure out how, operationally, to disentangle the newspaper so they can be separately owned," the newspapers' lawyer, Mark W. Batten, argued in an emergency motion Monday.

"The Telegram and the Times Company accordingly seek some alternatives to injunction that would permit the sale of the Telegram's assets to go forward along with the sale of the other assets," the motion continued.

James Galliher, a Fitchburg lawyer representing more than 1,000 former carriers, said they are due at least $10 million to $14 million in compensation.